`Dead' language outlasts us all

COUNTY LINES

May 12, 2005|By Jim Toner, Sentinel Columnist

Not to belabor the point ad infinitum, but Latin will outlast the people who want the "dead language" stricken from schools. Long after they have taken their last anti-Latin breaths, or any breath for that matter, Latin will survive.

Phrases such as ad infinitum, for instance, which describes something that goes on without end, remain current.

Latin can unlock scores of languages. Romance languages such as French, Spanish and Italian are direct descendants. Although English is not a Romance language, about half its words are derived from Latin somehow.

Our more rigorous callings, such as law and medicine, owe a big debt to Latin and to ancient Greek, another "dead" language. Often, these pursuits use actual Latin phrases and not just a vocabulary derived from Latin. Latin remains the official language of the Vatican, the spiritual seat of more than 1 billion Catholics.

Latin prefixes and suffixes open the door to figuring out word meanings in hundreds of other contexts, too, even fun and games such as track and field. Lake Mary track coach Mike Gibson, a former Latin student, cites decathlon as an example.

As a Seminole High School student, Gibson, himself an educator for 32 years, studied Latin under Nellie Coleman, the lord high priestess of Latin in Seminole County. Gibson, who also teaches math at Lake Mary High, calls Coleman "teacher of the millennium."

Coleman is in love with Latin. On her first day of high school, she made the decision to become a Latin teacher. It was not just the utility and beauty of the language that attracted her. It was the culture that nurtured it. Ancient Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, a pinnacle of civilization that contributed to the core of Western civilization.

There are lessons to be learned here, too. Rome, despite its might and sophistication, eventually fell through weakness. Western civilization itself remains under siege.

These are relevant lessons today. Coleman taught her first Latin classes at Seminole High in 1934 upon graduation from Florida State University, then known as Florida State College for Women. She found great interest in Latin, teaching six classes, all of them full.

In those days, if a student had college ambitions, Latin was a must. Former students still talk of Coleman's annual "Latin Banquets," where students would dress the part and study the Roman role models they wished to represent. This was no Animal House toga party, but it became so popular that it had to move from Seminole High to the Sanford Civic Center.

Coleman retired in 1972. Interest in Latin had started to drift, but it survives as a subject. Coleman thinks the flame still burns through such dedicated teachers as Kathy Stroschein at Lake Mary.

From all accounts, Coleman was a tough teacher, but the kind students came to love as they realized the impact her gifts had upon their lives.